Britain's oldest man has attributed reaching his 110th birthday to a combination of idleness and drinking a mysterious potion as a boy.

Former church minister Reg Dean, from Wirksworth, Derbyshire, said the secret of his longevity was being lazy. Born in Tunstall, Staffordshire, on 4 November 1902,

Dean added that his life span may also be due to a brown elixir a doctor in Bombay gave him just before the first world war. "He said 'if you drink this you will live for ever' – and this is the result," he told the Derbyshire Times.

Dean has been married three times, and lived through two world wars and 24 prime ministers. He worked as a minister until his retirement aged 80. A public concert was held on Saturday to celebrate his birthday. Asked how he felt, he told the BBC: "A year older than when I was 109!"

Dean became Britain's oldest man after Stanley Lucas, from Cornwall, died in June 2010, aged 110. The world's oldest living man is Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, aged 115.